The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for a continuous filament composite polygon rifling disposable gun tube.
Various means have been used in the past to find an economical means of rifling large caliber composite gun tubes ever since composite materials were introduced into gun design. By definition in this application the term "composite" means a continuous filament reinforced plastic or metal constructed through the use of either filament winding, braiding resin transfer molding or fabric lay up. "Polygon Rifling" means a helix consisting of a closed figure composed of chords of a circle joined end to end.
One of the methods previously used to rifle a composite gun tube was to broach or machine grooves into a composite material with 3-dimensional high strength properties. Another prior art method used a metal liner with a composite overwrap for added strength properties. The problem with the use of 3-dimensional composite material and composite overwrapped liners was that they were prohibitively expensive as viable candidates when considering disposable weaponry. In addition both of the above prior art designs require extensive machine and assembly operations where as the polygon rifling of the present invention is fabricated in a one step operation. A further disadvantage of the use of prior art machined 3-dimensional composite material gun tubes is the possible micro-cracking damage to the matrix material. This damage frequently reduces the materials strength, stiffness and environmental properties.
The present invention is superior to the prior art polygon rifled gun tubes because composite polygon rifling makes it economically feasible to produce a lightweight disposable rifled launcher.